Antrim's Mark Allen has been knocked out of the UK Snooker Championship in York after losing to Scotland's John Higgins in the last 16.

The match was close and Allen led 3-2 after five frames at the Barbican Centre, but World No.6 Higgins rolled off four consecutive frames to wrap up the victory.

It's a blow for Allen, who came into the tournament with high hopes of going far after a strong showing at the Northern Ireland Open.

But this was one step too far as Allen eventually ran out of steam and suffered defeat at the last 16 stage, despite playing some positive snooker.

He had the highest break of the match at 105 and went toe to toe with the Scot, who is ranked four places above him in the world, for most of the match.

But it was his safeties that let him down, particularly in the seventh and eighth frames when, needing snookers to get back into contention, he failed to put Higgins under enough pressure to foul.

The signs looked ominous early on when Higgins raced into a two frame lead before Allen responded by winning the next three to take the lead, including that 105 break in frame four.

Higgins struck back with his highest break in the sixth frame, 101, before Allen shot himself in the foot by repeatedly failing to complete effective snookers.

Both the seventh and eighth frames went the way of Higgins after Allen struggled to back him into a corner, and by the time Allen was allowed to come to the table in the ninth it was just to shake hands to end the match.

Higgins will now play Mark Selby in the quarter-finals for a place in the last four.